Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A Year in the Making, Day 57

Years ago, when we were in san Francisco, celebrating our 4th anniversary (our 12th was this year, to give you a time reference), we booked our hotel right outside Chinatown. Literally, right outside Chinatown, as in our hotel was right next to the lions that guard the entrance. We did lots of wandering around down there, and at one point we came across this little shop that had an entire wall of different freshwater pearls, in a technicolor rainbow of colors. I bought entirely too many strands, including a large quantity of pearls in a brilliant cobalt blue. That was over 8 years ago, and for the last four, I've been looking for more pearls in that same color. The ones regularly available were never the same shade, always darker and not as bright a hue.

Here's what my original discovery looked like:

And here's what was commonly on the market:

But one of the wonderful things about being on a team as supportive as my fellow members of the Jewelry on Etsy team is that my JETs are always lending a helping hand. One of our number, the gracious and talented Elizabeth of Foret, came across a supplier with a huge untapped stash, and asked us each if there was anything particular we were looking for. Guess what I asked her about? She came through brilliantly. Check these out!

She's got oodles of other dangerous goodies in her supply shop, ForetTwo. Check out these lovelies!